Yikes, what a start to 2020! In amongst all the uncertainty, I’m sure all of us would agree that we would love nothing more than to never read another article on the Coronavirus again; quite frankly we are sick (pun unintended!) and tired of it ourselves! So, in a perhaps feeble attempt to avoid regurgitating what you’ve already likely read or heard elsewhere, I’m going to try and focus on solely what to do when being forced to consider postponing your event, or as a last resort, cancelling altogether, and to offer you some support and advice. Hopefully it might be of help to a few of you, if not, it is preventing me from getting devoured by my sofa!
· If you’re worried that your event might be at risk of postponement or cancellation, though are yet to hear from any of your suppliers, then get in touch with your booked venue first to see what the situation is on their side. In our current predicament, things are admittedly changing all the time, but venues will by now have a contingency plan in place and will be able to let you know their intentions moving forward.
· Chat with your venue to discuss your options. All suppliers, including ourselves, are going to have to be very accommodating and flexible during this time and they will want to avoid any cancellations, so the chances are that they are going to be very keen to help you reschedule your event with minimal changes.
· If your venue does request that you reschedule your event, ask them for a list of alternative dates. Most venues will offer you more than a few to choose from, though as they are all likely dealing with a whole bunch of postponements and cancellations, this will understandably vary. Do your best to stay open to all alternative dates, whether that be a weekday event, an off-peak date or a date that seems a little too far away for your liking, as the more options you have the better!
· Once you have some potential dates to play with, take these to the rest of your suppliers asap. We anticipate that replacement dates will get snapped up rather quickly and some venues may well operate on a first come first served basis, so make haste to avoid missing out on your top choices!
· There is, of course, the unfortunate possibility that some of your suppliers won’t be available on the alternative dates that were offered by your venue. It therefore may well become a case of opting for the date that most of your suppliers are available on! We know that this would be disappointing for many, as no doubt you took time and effort in choosing your suppliers, but on the positive side of this, there will be many amazing suppliers actively looking to fill their diaries once this whole situation settles down, so our guess is that you’ll be spoilt for choice!
· In the event of cancellation, again your individual suppliers will likely have a contingency plan for this in place and I expect these vary somewhat. Most I’m afraid will charge a fee for a cancellation, though I imagine this would be significantly less than what is charged during normal circumstances.
· Once you have confirmed your rescheduled date with all of your available suppliers and they have it firmly in their diaries, then you can take a deep breath and relax knowing that it’s all sorted… again!
We are so very sorry to all of you who have seen your events be postponed and cancelled over the past few weeks, particularly knowing the amount of thought and planning that goes into organising each of them. Do your best to stay positive – your events will happen, as you imagined, eventually, and although it may mean even more planning and waiting before then, it does actually give you more time to plan and prepare, and that can never be a bad thing! If you booked The Benedicts to perform for you, then rest assured that we are here to help you; we’re only an email, call or text away! We will not charge for the rescheduling of any event during this time and we are willing to liaise with your other suppliers to keep the flow of communication…well… flowing – just keep us posted on your situations!
It’s a difficult time for everyone, including self-employed people like ourselves, whose income is of course affected significantly. All we can do is keep calm and carry on… it’s actually the perfect opportunity to have yourselves a little rest!
Wishing all of you good health and happiness over the coming weeks and months ‘til we see you again on the dancefloor!
Baz =)
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